Slow as Time, Fast as Lightning
by steepedinshadows419
Summary: In the wake of Nora's return to the future, Iris decides she wants to start a family. Right now. Barry/Iris. One-shot. [25 Days of Westallen Fanfiction: Day 2]


**A/N:** Fic 2 of my _25 Days of Westallen Fanfiction_. :P The timeline for this is implied to be the end of season 5 after Nora presumably leaves to go back to the future. Enjoy!

 ***** Many thanks to **sendtherain** for beta'ing.

 ***** I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

...

It was silent, almost eerily so, when Barry shut the door behind them. Iris stood still, looking over the empty space as Barry hung up his jacket and slowly pulled hers off to do the same. He walked past her then, gently brushing her elbow to get her attention.

"You all right?" he asked, mildly concerned.

Iris blinked, then looked at him, her features softening into a gentle smile.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course."

She slipped out of her shoes and followed him into the room, letting him take her hand and kiss the back of it as he led her to the couch and cuddled up with her on it.

"It's just so…quiet, you know?"

"Well…Cicada is defeated."

"Thank God for that."

"Crime is almost nonexistent today – let's not complain about that."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"And…our daughter's gone back to the future."

She pursed her lips, contemplating.

"Think things will be different for her when she gets back?"

He sighed, running his fingers through her hair.

"I don't know how they can be the same. Her coming back changed things for us here in the present. It would be impossible for them to not be different thirty years from now."

"Yeah…" She bit her bottom lip, leaning into him more.

"But that's not what you were thinking about, were you?"

She swallowed, and his fingers stilled in her hair.

"No."

He pressed his cheek to her temple and resumed stroking her dark locks.

"I don't know if things can be changed, Iris," he said honestly. "That headline hasn't changed in any timeline."

"I know," she said quietly.

"Plus, it's still so far away. Five years. Saving you from Savitar was less than a year away, and despite all our efforts it was a last-minute decision from HR that saved you. Who could save me? Another speedster? I'd never ask anyone else to take my place if it meant they'd never be able to return to their loved ones or even die in the process."

"You wouldn't ask anyone to take your place even if that wasn't the case, Barry."

She laid her hand over his chest and took comfort in the warmth his body heat provided, the steady beat of his heart beneath her fingertips.

"Knowing what we know now, though… Maybe things can be different. Maybe I can return sooner, watch our daughter grow up, spend decades with you guys instead of apart."

"Yeah," she said quietly. "Maybe."

"Iris," he murmured, running his hand down her back to pull her out of the deathly chill she'd fallen into. "I'm right here," he whispered into her ear.

She closed her eyes and felt tears wetting her eyelashes.

"And for the next five years at least, I can promise you I'm not going anywhere."

"That's…" She took a breath before continuing. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

His brows furrowed as she pulled back enough to look up at him. He waited for her to continue.

"I want Nora now."

He blinked. "Uh…" he managed.

"I went off my birth control three weeks ago."

" _What_?" His eyes widened, and he pulled back from her further, staring at her dead-on, trying to see if she was serious and telling the truth. All indications pointed to yes. "Iris… You mean…every time we…in recent weeks, we were possibly…?"

She rolled her eyes and grinned at her helplessly oblivious husband.

"No, no, of course not." He looked at her in confusion. "Barry, I went to see my doctor. Three weeks is the bare minimum for my body to return to normal and start ovulating again, at least with the birth control I've been using. Two to three months is the norm."

"So, there's no chance you're pregnant now."

She thought about it for a second. "…probably not."

"Probably?!"

"Barry, calm down," she said as he shot to his feet.

But he didn't calm down. He started to pace, running his hands through his hair until it looked like an adorably sleepy mess – or like sex hair, which was fitting.

" _Barry_." She sighed, fighting a smile when he stopped to look at her, hopelessly frantic. "Come sit down." She nodded towards the couch, and reluctantly he followed her orders. "Do you _want_ me to take a pregnancy test?"

He looked at her, still more stressed than she'd seen him in a while. Then in a blink of an eye he was gone and back again and presenting her with a newly bought boxed up pregnancy test. She chuckled but snatched it from him and headed to the bathroom.

"I can hear you pacing," she said from inside.

He stopped and turned an exasperated look towards the closed door.

"I could be a dad, Iris. A dad."

She snorted, amused. "You've been a dad for the past year, and it didn't make you this distraught."

"That's _different_ ," he said with a conviction he didn't feel.

"How?" she deadpanned.

"It just is." He stopped, losing his speech as she opened the door.

"Well?" His mouth went dry.

The look in his wife's eyes should've told him everything he needed to know, but he still looked down at the symbol on the stick to be sure.

 _Negative_. She wasn't pregnant.

"Feel better now, honey?" she teased, smacking his ass lightly as she tossed the test into the trash and plopped herself back on the couch.

He sighed and followed her, sitting beside her again.

"You can't blame me for being a little…frantic, Iris. I really would've liked to know what you were doing before you did it."

"Three weeks ago, you could not have handled this kind of news, Barry. You were busy defeating Cicada. We all were."

He let that slide, running his hand down his face.

"Okay. So, why now, Iris? Obviously, Nora wasn't born for a few more years."

"Yeah, and she doesn't remember a thing about her father because she was too young when you disappeared."

"Iris," his voice broke.

"I haven't given up," she said. "We have five years to prevent it from happening or figure out a way to get you back sooner rather than later if we can't do that."

"Then?"

"If we can't. If you're really gone for good, and if I really mess up so badly with my own daughter, I want her to have memories of you. I can't remember anything from when I was two or three, but I do remember a few things from when I was five, some vague stuff from when I was four. If I can get pregnant this year, have Nora by early next year? Maybe she can remember some things about you. Maybe she won't have to be so dependent on a hardened, reclusive mother and the Flash museum."

"Iris…"

"And maybe I miss her already," she admitted, smiling tentatively as she met his eyes.

He sighed and nodded, sharing her sad smile.

"Okay," he said.

Her eyes brightened. "Yeah?"

He laughed. "Yeah. Yes. Let's make Nora West-Allen."

His smile was so wide and glorious she could hardly stand it, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd been this happy. She clutched at his shirt, practically climbing into his lap as she did so. Despite the laughter spilling out of him, she was still hyper aware of the hard length between his legs as her knee brushed against it.

"Oh my God, Barry."

He blushed. "I mean, this as good a reason as any," he pointed out.

She shook her head, straddled him, and leaned down for his kiss.

"You're impossible," she murmured but started undressing anyway – undressing him too until he stopped her. "What is it?"

"Not like this, Iris."

Her brows furrowed, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"We're about to try to have a baby, our girl, Nora West-Allen."

"And?" she asked, though the statement alone was making her smile again.

"Surely her conception deserves a little better than a passionate romp on the couch."

"Romp?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"There is…another four-letter word that could describe it," he remarked, that insufferable smirk back on his face.

She grabbed a pillow and swatted it at him, but before she could do it again, they were upstairs in their bedroom with mood lighting and soft music.

"Barry Allen," she marveled as she looked around the room. "This is more effort than you put into our anniversary."

He winced. "We were busy," he tried, to which he received another raised eyebrow. "Which we shouldn't have been, and I apologize profusely for that."

She relaxed when he reached her, draping her arms around his neck as he did the same with his around her waist.

"You're forgiven, of course – for the hundredth time."

"I'm the luckiest man in the world," he said, leaning down to kiss her.

She savored the kiss, the warmth, the simplicity, knowing that in moments it would likely turn wild and ravenous. It was hard for her to believe he was the luckiest man, what with the doom of the not so distant future lying just a few years away. But for now, she could forget that and pull him closer, ignore everything but the two of them in this room and remember that this was a conscious decision to bring their daughter into the world. It would keep them from having the alone time together that she'd often craved in the past several months. But that had been few and far between anyway. When things became too strained, they made it happen.

She pulled back to look into his eyes, stroke the side of his face, memorize him.

"I love you, Barry Allen," she said softly, fear but also an abounding love in her eyes.

"I love you, Iris West-Allen," he replied, the same expression in his.

Another simple, gentle kiss, and he guided her to the bed. Her hair splayed out on the pillows. He'd seen the visual a million times, but in this moment, she had never looked more beautiful.

His eyes traveled down her body for a while. He could see her desire for him in the way her legs restlessly moved against his and her hands wrapped around his back, no nails digging in but an urgency there all the same.

"Barry."

He met her eyes again finally, then pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"We're going slow this time, Iris," he said.

She blinked. "We are?"

He nodded. "Yeah." Then pressed a kiss to her lips. "I want to worship you."

Her heart melted, but she let him have his way with her the way he desired. She let him slowly kiss down her body, wrap his tongue around each nipple and leave a moist path from her neck down to her torso. He nearly stole her breath when he started to lap his tongue between her folds, drinking her juices as she clutched his hair and pushed him down deeper, closer, into her, her heels digging into his back, her body nearly levitating off the bed.

"B-Bar-B-Barryyyy, oh my God." And she crested.

Coming back to her body, pressing kisses everywhere, she thought he was going to lie beside her, all appearance to being finished.

She looked at him in disbelief when he looked to be doing just that.

"Honey, I hate to break it to you, but that's not gonna put a baby in my belly."

He opened his eyes, grinned, then laughed, his demeanor turning him into a sexy-as-hell Flash.

"You want the Flash's baby in your belly?" he asked, his voice dropping an octave and sending delicious chills up her spine. She knew what that voice meant. That meant a fuck that stole her breath with its speed and deliberate thrusts.

"I thought you wanted to go slow," she said.

"We will," he said, and then he was on his back and she was above him being lowered into his very hard, prominent erection. She gasped more than once and moaned as her body adjusted to the intrusion.

" _Barry_." And a glorious intrusion that it was.

His hands wrapped around her hips, and he started to move her until she moved herself. He thrust slowly from beneath her. The friction drove her crazy, but still she wanted more. He slowed her down deliberately when she tried to pick up speed, grinding against him.

"Come on, Barry."

"Slow this time, I said, Iris," he purred.

Her eyes met his, and she knew she was absolutely going to lose her mind. But they remained slow all the way until finally she was on her back again, and he was pounding into her, not saying a word, pure heat in his eyes when she commanded between shorts breaths that he look at her.

Sweat dripping down his neck and back, her fighting to hang onto him, they both hit their breaking point, releasing into each other and relaxing pleasantly once it was over.

Barry untangled himself from her and fell onto his back to cool himself down. After a few moments though he reached for her, and she cuddled close.

"Think we made a baby?" he asked.

"Nora could be on her way," she said smiling.

"When will we know?" he asked, curious and hopeful. Iris swelled at his joined eagerness with her.

"Soon enough," she said, laying her hand over his heart again. "Until then, though…"

He turned his head to look at her, saw the barely disguised mischief in her eyes, and told himself he shouldn't be surprised.

"Already?"

She shrugged. "I mean, if you need a few minutes…"

He laughed and hovered her, grinning like the lucky man he was.

"Never."

She lifted herself up for his kiss and pulled him down to her body.

"It's not gonna happen the first time," she whispered into his ear before drawing a moan out of him by nibbling on his lobe. He shuddered above her. "If we have to do this all night…"

He silenced her words with a kiss and thrust into her, swallowing her cries. If his wife wanted fast and furious to bring Nora into this world, he would do his damndest to grant her wish.

At least this time.


End file.
